Letter: Thoughts on IKEA, land-use decision

Reading the op-ed by Robert “Bud” Ovrom it seemed sad that the reason he is so excited about the new mega IKEA is that it generates “millions of dollars of tax revenues.”

Did anyone do a real cost analysis? What effect will this mega store have on the Ralphs, Trader Joe’s and Vons in the vicinity and what about their tax revenues that the city presently collects? How much money was spent wooing IKEA? What else was given them besides 20 years of free rent? And were these costs together with the negative effect on resources, air quality and traffic to name a few, taken into consideration?

Now we are going ahead with a mega IKEA, even renaming a portion of a street for them, regardless of all the costs and negative effects such a huge store will have on Burbank. If IKEA was such an revenue asset, where is all this revenue and why are we in a financial bind? Somehow the math doesn’t seem to work.

Mr. Ovrom also brings up importance of the future of the property that IKEA is vacating saying “it will be the most important land-use decision this City Council will ever make.” Therefore, instead of just the City Council alone making this decision, wouldn’t it be great if we had some town hall community meetings involving the residents of Burbank?

We might have some really surprising best use of the land ideas and perhaps offer other better solutions for funding of our city other than relying on sales and property taxes. This very important property’s use must be a joint effort involving all of us, and carefully thought out before any final decision is made.

Anna May Nelson

Burbank